Part V in the series How should I set up my computer?
(parts I, II, III and IV). So far, I've connected
my new computer safely to the internet, updated software, tweaked some of
Windows XP's controls and behaviors, and started installing software including
Microsoft Office 2003.

I spend a significant chunk of my on-line life in Microsoft Outlook. Like
much of my time, this article will focus on Outlook, and how I tweak it to my
liking.

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The first time you start Microsoft Outlook, you're forced to step through a
wizard that is designed to help you set up your email accounts.

As you might imagine, I skip that, but we want to run it anyway. Work your
way through the wizard, but don't set up any email accounts just yet. Exit the
wizard and exit Outlook.

Now that we've run Outlook, you'll find that there's a new entry in your
control panel: Mail. That's why we ran Outlook only to exit it
immediately.

Profiles

I make extensive use of Outlook Profiles. Profiles are nothing more that
separate configurations of Outlook. I use one at home that includes all my
email accounts (I have at least five), I use another when I'm traveling that
only includes some of those accounts, and I use yet another when my wife and I
are traveling together so that we can check her email as well.

In Control Panel, Mail, select
Show Profiles. I don't want a profile called "default", so I
copy the default profile to one with a name I choose and then delete the
default profile. I also select "Prompt for a profile to be used" at this time,
so I can choose which profile I want to use each time I start Outlook. I then
click Properties to begin customizing the profile.

Default Data File

Setting up your own default data file and getting your email delivered to it
instead of the one Outlook has already set up for you can be a bit of a
challenge. I take these steps:

Click on Data Files

I add my data file, placing it in the location I want it.

Close the Data Files dialog.

Click on E-mail Accounts

Select View or change existing e-mail accounts

In Deliver new e-mail to the following location, select
the other entry typically also called "Personal Folders", and select
Finish.

Now go back to Data Files

Select the old, original default data file and hit Remove
to remove it, leaving only the one I selected.

Now we can finally fire up Outlook.

Why is it all about me?

This series of articles discusses in some detail how I set up my
machine. That implies I'm setting things to maximize how I use my computer in
my own ways.

That may not be right for you.

My intent is that you use these articles as a guide - a road map of sorts to
show you the things that you might want to change, lead you into areas you
didn't realize could be customized, or show you how to customize things where
it's not at all obvious how. Your settings will almost certainly vary from
mine. I've found that Email, for example, is a particularly personal
experience.

E-mail Accounts

In Tools, E-mail Accounts..., View
or change existing e-mail accounts, I add email accounts. One by one.
All five of them. Besides the normal information (my display name, email name,
server names, account name and password), I also select More
Settings... and change the name displayed to be my email name. Later
when I'm presented with a list of accounts to select from, it's obvious which
one I mean. At this point I also set the security options required by my
outgoing mail server. After all that, on the main account creation page, I also
run a test just to make sure that the account is working properly.

Address Books

Setting up your contacts to be used as an address book for Outlook seems
unnecessarily complex as well.

Viewing the Folder List, right click on
Contacts and select properties. Click on the
Outlook Address Book tab, and make sure that Show this
folder as an e-mail Address Book is checked.

Now, back in the Tools menu, select E-mail
Accounts..., View or change existing directories or address
books. Double click on Outlook Address Book and
delete the first one - I believe it's a remnant from the default data file we
removed earlier.

Customizing Menus & More

I'm not a big fan of personalized or auto-hide menus, so I right click the
menu bar in some unused area and select Customize. In the
Options tab I select Always show full
menus.

Since I've configured for multiple accounts, in the
Commands tab I drag a different Send/Receive
item to the toolbar that includes a drop-down that allows me to select a
specific account to act on. A also drag off the default Send/Receive button
and add a "Move to Folder" icon.

I also like to customize the Navigation Pane. At the bottom right of the
navigation pane is a Configure Buttons menu that also
includes Navigation Pane Options. I deselect a few things, but
leave the things I use enabled: Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Notes and Folder
List.

I also drag the divider at the bottom of the navigation pane down as far as
it will go, leaving only a row of icons at the bottom. At this point I also
spend a few minutes and remove everything from Favorite
Folders and then drag over a few icons that really are my
favorites.

Options - Lots of Options

At long last, we head off into the Tools,
Options dialog.

On the Preferences tab, hit the Junk Email
button. Now, I turn this option off completely, because I have some good spam
filtering upstream - I see get only a small percentage of the SPAM that is
headed my way. That having been said, I've found Outlook 2003's junk mail
filter to be excellent, and suggest at least the Low setting.
If you select High, be sure to scan your junk mail folder
periodically for false positives.

Still on the Preferences tab, in Email
Options:

I select "After moving or deleting an open item, 'open the next item'".
I've never quite understood how the default of opening the previous is useful
at all.

I select "Close original message on reply or forward".

I uncheck remove extra line breaks in plain text messages. It can make some
messages look more natural, but it can also seriously mess up formatting of
others.

Under "When replying to a message" I select "Prefix each line of the
original message".

Under "When forwarding a message" I select "Include the original message
text."

Under "Prefix each line with:" I enter "> ".

I uncheck "Mark my comments with"

On the Mail Setup tab, hit the
Send/Receive... button. I turn off "Schedule an
automatic send/receive". I prefer to not be interrupted by incoming email, but
rather retrieve it on my terms and schedule.

On the Mail Format tab:

"Compose in this message format: Plain Text". HTML email is nice and all,
but rarely do I need it for my messages.

Turn OFF (OFF! OFF! OFF!) "Use Microsoft Office Word
2003". I love Word as a word processor, but there's simply no reason to use it
for email. None. It just slows down the process, generates bloated HTML (if
that's your format), and is very much over-kill for writing email.

I create my Signatures - typically several, associated
with each of my accounts.

On the Spelling tab I uncheck "Correct two initial caps,
and uncheck capitalize the first letter of sentences. The later is because when
editing plain text messages, the editor seems to think that each new line is a
sentence.

On the Other tab, under Person Names I
turn off the "Person Names Smart Tag". Then I select the Advanced
Options button, and set "Startup in this folder" to be "Inbox", and
turn of the always annoying "When selecting text automatically select entire
word".

A Few Last Tweaks

We're almost done. A couple of additional tweaks that are in other areas of
the program.

Create a message, and while that is up, click on the View
menu, and select BCC field. Now that will display by
default.

Lastly, as I view various folders, I turn the Preview Pane off, or set it to
display below the message list rather than to the right.

Done

That's it.

Well, not really. I continue to customize Outlook with things like new folders, new
rules and the like as my email needs change over time.

It's long list, but as I said, given the amount of time I spend
in Outlook, it makes a lot of sense to invest in making it as easy for me to work
the way I want to.

Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.

where do i get this info from while setting up email accounts
my display name, email name, server names, account name and password
especially the server name?
thanks

Leo
January 19, 2005 9:36 AM

From the ISP that is providing you with your email account.

Asania
March 2, 2005 12:23 PM

Hello,

How do I set up my Hotmail and Yahoo emails to come through to Outlook 2003. I know they have different POP and STMP servers addresses, which I am also having difficulty locating. Can you please provide step-bystep assistance if you can for one, or both of these email accounts. Many thanks!

Leo
March 2, 2005 1:05 PM

With Yahoo I'm fairly certain you cannot. They don't provide a pop3 interface. (Though I believe Yahoo UK was or is doing something with their premium for-pay service).

HotMail used to be accessible via Outlook and Outlook Express, but that's no longer supported. And again, there is no POP3 or HotMail interface.

Both are, effectively, web-only mail services.

Kim Dumas
March 10, 2005 12:18 PM

Hi Leo,

Maybe you know the answer. One of my clients says she is using Microsoft Outlook 2003. I have an older version and the mail settings are different. I'm trying to find the area where it says Leave a copy on server. We couldn't find it. Her webmail is retaining messages that she has already received in her Outlook and she doesn't want it to.

Hotmail accounts accessed through Outlook, however, don't have that option.

Kishen
March 22, 2005 7:32 PM

how do i set up a Hotmail account for Outlook 2003?

Leo
March 22, 2005 7:40 PM

Select "HTTP Server" instead of POP3 as the server type when you set up an email account normally.

Be aware that Hotmail free accounts may no longer be accessible via Outlook.

Shell
April 4, 2005 9:58 AM

Outlook 2002 - When you click Tools | Options | Email Options | Mark
My comments with - there is a name in that box and it is grayed out. Once you select the Mark My Comments With and delete the name, then uncheck the box, as soon as you log
off and log back in the name reappears.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
S. Clark

Kirsteen Black
April 7, 2005 3:32 AM

Hi there,

I'm trying to follow your instructions but still I'm getting lost. I've just set up a new website and have an email address to match the domain. I want to set this email address up to come into my Microsoft Outlook package. I'm attempting to set up Outlook but cannot get past the Email Accounts page. I don't know if I'm meant to choose Microsoft Exchange Server, Pop3, HTTP IMAP etc. Can you give me further advice?
Many thanks
Kirsteen

Leo
April 7, 2005 9:33 AM

It's probably pop3, but it depends on who's providing the email for you. You might need to check with your ISP.

James
April 16, 2005 5:02 PM

i am runninf outlook 2003 and a exchange 2003 server I am using outlook but i want to be able to have my messages be able to be read in exchagn web mail and outlook is this posable.
Thanks,
James

VJER
April 18, 2005 4:58 PM

Leo
I want to change the viewing order of my address books. Contacts is the first displayed and I want to change that to another address Book without having to click on it. It was easy under Win2K with Office 2000. I have a new computer with XP and after I installed Office 2K (with the same disc I used with Win2K)I no longer have the options choice under Tools. When I go to Tools/Address Book/Tools, the only choices I get are Accounts and Actions. No Options.
Thanks

Chris Davis
May 4, 2005 9:31 PM

I just set up Outlook 2003 with two e-mail accounts. Under the Mail section, I can only see one of them, although they're both available under Send/Receive. How can I see both of them in the Mail section with their separate respective Inboxes, and other folders? I've read the above, and it's possible I missed it, but I don't think so.

Leo
May 5, 2005 5:57 AM

All email accounts get delivered into the single inbox. If you want to make different inboxes you'll need to create the folders and then use "Rules" to move the mail as it arrives.

Bo Jørgensen
June 9, 2005 8:38 AM

Hi Leo, thanks for a great site, I followed your guide, but still can't get it right :( I want too move my agentmikie mail to a specified folder, but it still only recieves it in the standard outlook incoming folder.. Please, tell me a step by step guide. Like the one you told Chris Davis. Thanks again for a great website :)

Great site. I've just recently changed from Outlook Express to Outlook and now I'm finding that my e-mails look fine during compostion and in my Sent file but are received by others with larger than intended spaces between paragraphs. Any idea on how to fix this? Please let me know.

Leo
September 22, 2005 10:04 PM

Depends on the format you're using, and which editor your using. I'd recommend plain text, and turning off using Word as your email editor.

Paul
October 18, 2005 11:01 PM

I've got Office 2003 installed, but can't use my Outlook addresses for envelopes in Word. I use Eudora for e-mail, so Word tells me I need to set Outlook as my mail client before I can address stuff from Outlook. "Mail" in CP seems to be all ok, the profile is correct, and the Outlook address book (using MAPI) is listed in the Wizard.

I've hunted around, but have found no solution. Any ideas?

Adny Gooch
November 23, 2005 2:10 PM

Leo,

Great site.

I have set up multiple accounts and have deleted them, then wanted to add them back and name them as before but am told that the name alreday exists. so account name:example means i now have to account name:example1. Are these account names written in the registry or in a hidden file that can be deleted or edited so that I can get the names of the accounts back?

I need this because I often travel with a notebook and have replica configurartions and overwrite .pst files, so w/out this prefect account naming, all the rules get angry...

Ideas?

Leo
November 24, 2005 10:44 PM

What version of outlook? I've done exactly as you describe in the past, and have not had the name issue. If you go into advanced settings, can you manually change the name to what you want?

Tommy Noble
November 30, 2005 1:26 PM

I've disabled 'automatically select entire word' but when reading html messages I cannot seem to get around it. Do you know where I can find the setting to disable this irritating 'feature'?

Leo
December 7, 2005 10:23 PM

If you've used the default install, you may need to disable it in both Microsoft Word, AND Outlook. Alternately stop using Word as your email editor, and control it entirely within Outlook.

Jack Sain
January 6, 2006 12:42 PM

I use Outlook only for "Contacts" together with Motorola Mobile Tools to manage phone numbers in my cell phones. How can I configure Outlook to open on the "Contacts" listing. It currently opens to a blank page titled "Personal Folders."

T.W. Day
January 28, 2006 3:24 PM

I recently upgraded my MS Office from XP to 2003 on two machines, a desktop and a laptop. On the desktop, I had left a previous, working installation of Office/Outlook and simply did the upgrade. Other than wrestling with some visual changes in the program that I didn't care for and had some trouble getting rid of, the desktop installation was easy.

The notebook, however, was a clean install due to a disk crash that instigated the whole change-over in the first place. I, absolutely, can not get Outlook 2003 to find my email/calendar/contacts file (which is in my My Documents/Exchange folder) no matter how I finagle the Email Accounts "New Outlook Data File" directions. I, also, can't figure out where Outlook 2003 has hidden the PST file that it is using. Any assistance would be desperately appreciated.

well if i configure a account with roaming profile the user cannot configure. the same user without roaming profile it can configure outlook ??
do you know this problem

Rafi Schwartz
February 17, 2006 3:10 PM

I have Outlook setup with a single profile tied to a corporate Exchange accout. I would like to setup an additional email account (personal) and have those messages go into my local PST file. All my attempts so far have failed with all mail going into the Exchange MailBox.

Thanks for you help

Gery
February 17, 2006 5:23 PM

PLEASE HELP ! ! !

i need to know how to make outlook (2003 says the about box) display the EMAIL ADDRESS and not the contact name as it currently does, in the "FROM:" field of the inbox.

sometimes i receive emails from people that are not in my contact list (of course, everybody does), if those senders happen to NOT have a "friendly name" setup in their client then i receive and EMPTY from field.

also if i have 2 Jhonny P. in my contac list, i want to know which one sent me the email, but the email appears nowhere in the from field andd i have to be checking the mail headers when this happens, highly annoying.

Robert Merritt
March 19, 2006 8:03 AM

Good stuff,Leo. Followed your instructions trying to make my Contacts Folder my Address Book (so it automatically fills in the email when I type the name. When looking in Tools/View or Change Adress Book, both Personal Folder and Outlook Contacts folder are there. But when I try to get an address (Tools/Address Book) -- Nuttin'. . . . What's up?

ray
March 21, 2006 12:28 PM

I use Mozilla as my email client, but my windows pocket pc requires outlook for syncing. How can I use Outlook, then leave the mail on the server, so that it is not downloaded? I prefer to read it, maybe answer it, but leave it on the server until I choose to go to Mozilla and deal with it.

guy
April 13, 2006 12:45 PM

Leo, I believe your first comment is wrong because yahoo does have a pop3 and smtp server to connect through outlook if you search yahoo pop3 smtp on google you will find them.

theotherone
May 5, 2006 9:24 AM

How do you turn off the Favorite folders?

how do you turn off the Icon bar at the bottom and replace is with the older Outlook view?

Leo
May 5, 2006 2:20 PM

I don't believe you can turn off that icon bar at the bottom - though you can resize it down to make is smaller than the default. Viewing "folder list" (one of those icons) is the closest to the old style, and has no favorite folder at the top.

Abhilash
May 9, 2006 1:14 AM

how should i setup outlook in roaming profiles. when using roaming profile .pst file missing message showing. what should i do?

Jerry Brooks
May 16, 2006 11:26 AM

How can I set up Outlook 2003 to prompt for an email account to use for sending email as opposed to having a default email account? I have 4 accounts and I keep forgetting to send mail with the proper account.

Leo
May 16, 2006 7:06 PM

As best as I can tell you cannot. I'm like you, I have several accounts, and like it or not, one of them is default.

delores
July 6, 2006 11:50 AM

I have three different outlook profiles but would only like to have one. How can I merge the information on all three of these to just one profile, and then how do I remove the remaining two that i do not want to have

Sreeraj.s
October 8, 2006 2:38 AM

how can i configure my outlook 2003(part of office 2003)for yahoo pop3 account

mwoodtech
October 19, 2006 7:04 AM

How do I stop the "Personalized Settings" pane from popping up (in the top left hand corner of Windows) whenever I log in as a User?

Buddy
February 12, 2007 10:17 AM

Recently changed from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003 and I have 2 questions-
1. I don't have MS word 2003 - can I use MS word 2000 as my email editor and how to set up?
2. I have 3 email accounts and have used the Wizard rules to try and direct mail to corresponding accounts, however most seem to go to my main email account. Are there tricks to set up distribution thru the 'rules'?
Thanks, Buddy

Nighthawk
February 19, 2007 5:32 AM

I recently moved to a new computer using the MS Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. The problem I'm having in Outlook is that is doesn't "see" my contacts in the "to, cc, bcc" fields. The contacts are there when I veiw the contacts folder but the "show names from the:" (in the "To, etc) menu is empty. I have nothing to choose from. How do I get my contacts to show up in that menu?

Leo Notenboom
February 19, 2007 10:50 AM

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

By using them. Outlook builds the auto-complete list over time based on
email addresses you've entered. It's actually unrelated to Contacts. It
not obvious at all, and as you've experienced, somewhat frustrating.

I am trying to copy my Outlook data, personal folders to a new laptop. I can't find my Outlook application. I can't find Local Settings. I can't find Applications. I am using XP Home and can't seem to make much sense of those directions I find on the internet.

Thanks,

Jim

SZ
February 28, 2008 4:33 PM

I am using Outlook 2003, can I format the text in "mark my comments with" field as bold and italic.

i tried setting up outlook 2003 to use as my mailing account and the above message apears when sending a message.

what is my next step

Farhad Ghanizadeh
March 24, 2008 8:26 AM

I HAVE NOTEBOOK MODEL : Dell M1210 and Vista window home primumn
but can send mail and recently i couldn't download my mail.please help me to solve this problem.

CB
April 28, 2008 1:52 AM

I set up travel itineries/meetings etc for our company executives - Once I input the details in the calendar, how can I send it as one batch file to those concerned for just that trip schedule, rather than many single emailed entries - We do not wish to syncronise calendars. Thx

Miriam
July 22, 2008 5:17 AM

Have recently changed from Outlook Express to Outlook. Can I customise the view so that I automatically get my list of contacts appearing below my folder list on the left-hand-side? (Like I used to with Outlook Express). Thanks.

Neil
October 2, 2008 8:56 AM

I have 2 email accounts. One account I want to download messages off my server (standard setup), the other I only want to see which messages are on my Exchange server.
Can this be done??

Ali Amir
November 29, 2008 8:03 PM

Hey im trying to use outlook to sync my phones entries to my computer and this is done successfully. Now the problem is in the contacts tab of outlook all the phone tabs are by default set to United states. Meaning if i just simply add my number without the country code, outlook adds a (s) for eg "(s) 789-1234" in front of the number. Some phones like the samsung omnia i am using now does not recognise these numbers. so how do i get rid of this. without changing the whole phone book piece by piece?
Please help.
Ali

Robert Chew
May 29, 2009 1:17 AM

Hi LEO, you are great. I had this problem in the mark/unmark paragraph P in Email with MS outlook.
I search the web and found you.
thanks Leo

Salvador Mendez
February 16, 2010 10:06 AM

Hello Leo:
I work in a small law office and we use MS exchange server 5.5 . Each one of use has a Exchange account and a internet email account configured in their respective Outlook. I tell everyone to make sure to use the pop3 account when sending email through internet, and the exchange account when the mailing is inside the office. Can I solve this by putting the internet email address in the SMTP field on each recipient's account in Exchange Server, and then putting the pop3 account as default on their machines' Outlook?

Dianne
June 2, 2011 10:06 AM

I just want to know how to set my time in my Microsoft Outlook so my emails come & go with the correct time. My computer time at bottom right corner is correct, but my email time is messed up - help?

I'd triple check that the timezone is set correctly - that can mess up time on email while your computer clock appears correct.

03-Jun-2011

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